L'Elephant dans la Piece

Generali

Alors.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/09/france-economy-crisis/

The virtual implosion of French industry is overlooked by analysts and pundits who claim that the eurozone had dodged disaster and entered a new, durable period of stability. In fact, it’s France — not Greece or Spain — that now poses the greatest threat to the euro’s survival. France epitomizes the real problem with the single currency: The inability of nations with high and rising production costs to adjust their currencies so that their products remain competitive in world markets.

It's an interesting piece. Basically France's generous social policies are making her products too expensive to compete. At the same, the private part of the economy, the bit that pays for the state, hasn't grown for several years.

If France is bust then things will get worse for the UK.

ruggedtoast

I am surprised by countries' desperation to cling on to euro membership. Joining what is effectively the deutschemark seems to have been a disaster for everyone apart from Germany.

Yet even when even only a madman would choose to stay in, like Cyprus, they still do.

michaels

Generali wrote: »

Alors.

http://finance.fortune.cnn.com/2013/01/09/france-economy-crisis/



It's an interesting piece. Basically France's generous social policies are making her products too expensive to compete. At the same, the private part of the economy, the bit that pays for the state, hasn't grown for several years.

If France is bust then things will get worse for the UK.

I'm not saying this is wrong but I do know that a lot of what is written about the Euro is from VI in pushing the markets in a direction over which the writer has taken a position (I know the same is true of all economic punditry).

Apart from Peugeot and to a lesser extent Renault isthe rest of the French economy really suffering so much?

purch

Generali wrote: »

Alors.
If France is bust then things will get worse for the UK.

Waddya mean IF ? :eek:

grizzly1911

michaels wrote: »

I'm not saying this is wrong but I do know that a lot of what is written about the Euro is from VI in pushing the markets in a direction over which the writer has taken a position (I know the same is true of all economic punditry).

Apart from Peugeot and to a lesser extent Renault isthe rest of the French economy really suffering so much?

Is there a correlation between the UK of the 70s and France today with their failing motor industry? Is there anything major to hang their hat on - nuclear energy maybe. Isn't a lot of their agriculture heavily subsidised?

We had the "luxury" of oil and the finance sector to soften the blow for a while but perhaps got too greedy.

DiggerUK

Generali wrote: »

...It's an interesting piece.....If France is bust then things will get worse for the UK.

What most commentators can't get their heads round, is not that the Euro, or the Eurozone is the problem, but that capitalism isn't the hot property it is sold as.
If all the Eurozone economies had remained as they had in the past, the very same problems in different form would be around today.

Capitalism is a sensitive soul, and as TPTB and the banksters were allowed free reign by self regulation, then what we are experiencing now should be no surprise.
To illustrate my point, I suggest you read the article again, and substitute Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus, or UK for France. It will read much the same.
..._

michaels

grizzly1911 wrote: »

We had the "luxury" of oil and the finance sector to soften the blow for a while but perhaps got too greedy.

Sorry, cart and horse, the reason the UK is not like France now is the oil pushed up the currency to a level that resulted in UK manufacturing being killed off a lot quicker than it would have been but at the same time a strong and stable currency encouraged a big financial centre to develop.

However the example of an 'external factor' bringing a currency to a level that does considerable harm to a manufacturing sector may well be apposite for the discussion of France.

chewmylegoff

Zut alors!!!